Chapter 1: An Ungracious Lieutenant
As usual with the French novels, Indy is said to wear
a
Stetson
brand hat.
Indy and his father are travelling to Tsadong Monastery in
Tibet to meet the professor's friend Bobkar Rimpotché. As
far as I can tell, this is a fictitious monastery.
On page 8, the Tibetan lieutenant refers to the Jones boys
as Tchilingas. This is a somewhat derogatory
Tibetan term for white men.
Indy meets a boy lama named Dentsen who is one of the
highest leaders of the Buddhist religion after the Dalai
Lama. The Dalai Lama is the head monk of the Gelug school of
Tibetan Buddhism, and nominally the leader of Tibet.
Chapter 2: A Voice in the Wind
On page 16, Dentsen wants to hear more about Indy's
adventure with the Eskimos in the Far North. This is a
reference to the events of
The Sacred Meteorite.
Dentsen's explanation of the Buddhist end state of nirvana
is essentially correct.
"Nirvana" is the state of perfect freedom and the release
from the cycle of birth, life, and death in Buddhism.
Page 20 states that the
expedition to the Tsadong Monastery was close to the pass of
Ma when the storm hits. Ma is a village in Tibet.
Also on page 20, Indy calls Lt. Nyak Tso a "badly licked
bear." This is a French colloquialism for someone who is
vulgar or unsociable.
Chapter 3: Broken Glass Does Not Bring Luck!
On page 24, Indy exclaims, "Name of a little man!"
This is a French colloquialism that is essentially a more
polite way of saying "In the name of God" (similar to "Name
of a dog" used in the previous French Indy books).
On page 26, the description of the small Buddhist religious
structure called a stupa, which is meant to be walked around
clockwise is accurate.
Chapter 4: The Culprits Are Innocent!
On page 33, the Tibetan party eats tsampa, a
Tibetan dish of porridge of barley flour.
On page 34, Indy's father remarks that Tibet's capital city
of Lhasa is a city forbidden to foreigners.
Lhasa
has the nickname of the Forbidden City
due to the
difficulty of entering it legally at various times in the
past according to its priority as a religious and governmental
center of the country in turbulent times.
Dentsen adds that the Dalai Lama returned to Potala
Palace last year and drove out the Chinese occupiers.
Potala Palace is a dzong fortress in Lhasa that served
as the Dalai Lama's winter residence from 1649-1959. It is
now a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A footnote on this page in the book states that the
Dalai Lama is of the Yellow Hat caste of Tibetan Buddhism
which makes him the head of state of Tibet. This is true,
though the current Dalai Lama lives in exile in India since
1959 due to Tibet's occupation by China, which no longer
recognizes the Dalai Lama's right to rule Tibet.
Chapter 5: Bad News
No notes.
Chapter 6: A Nice Cellmate
On page 66, Tomo explains that numo is a type of
Yoga for warming up your body. I've been unable to confirm
this term.
When Henry, Sr. learns that Alexandra David-Neel is coming
to the monastery, he is excited that she may be able to help
free them from Nyak Tso's cell because he knows her, having
met her in France. Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969) was a
Belgian-French explorer and spiritualist. She did travel
widely through India and Tibet from 1912-1916.
On page 73, Tomo describes the cave of
Dawa-Dzon in the
Mhal Gorge, a place supposedly infested with demons. As far
as I can find,
Dawa-Dzon and Mhal Gorge are fictitious locations in Tibet.
Chapter 7: Old Glasses or a Nice Hat?
No notes.
Chapter 8: Meet an Adventurer
The full original name of Alexandra
David-Neel (Louise Eugenie Alexandrine Marie David) and
mini-biography given by her on page 94 is accurate of her as
an historical figure.
Chapter 9: A Scary Disguise
On
page 103, Indy's father exclaims, "Name of a pipe!" This is
a French expression essentially meaning "For goodness sake!"
On page 105, Indy's father plugs up his ears for sleeping in
the monastery dormitory with wax balls he'd bought at a drug
store on Fifth Avenue in New York.
Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the Manhattan
borough of
New York.
To disguise himself as a "demon"
at the caves, Indy makes a mask out of a large melon,
similar to a costume he once wore for Halloween back home.
On page 113, a monk is frightened by Indy in his demon
costume, and he shouts, "Shenji!!! Shenji!!!" I've
been unable to determine what this means in Tibetan nor of
Tomo's assertion that Shenji is the god of death in
Buddhism. In Buddhism, Yama is normally the god associated
with death.
Chapter 10: Caverns and Taverns, One Must Not Get Confused!
On page 119, Tomo worries that the great "snow monkey" is
following them. Indy identifies this term with the Yeti or
Abominable Snowman.
The Yeti is a cryptozoological, ape-like creature said to
inhabit the Himalayan Mountains separating India and Tibet.
It has often been referred to in the west as the Abominable
Snowman. The Yeti is somewhat analogous to the Sasquatch (or
Bigfoot) of the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
Chapter 11: The Suspense of the Suspension Bridge
The cutting of the suspension bridge with Indy upon it is
similar to the suspension bridge scene that will occur in
The Temple of Doom.
Chapter 12: The Tamed Bandit
No notes.
Chapter 13: Small Farewell Gifts
At the end of the story, the child lama gives Indy his
yellow hat of Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. In return,
Indy gives the lama his Stetson fedora. This would imply
that the fedora worn by Indy in later adventures is not the
same one he received from Garth in
"The Cross of Coronado",
since the lama now has it.
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